Article 18

International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods
Vol.7, No.2, pp.46-59, April 2019

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
PSYCHO-SOCIAL FACTORS AND EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE TENDENCIES
AMONG PUPILS IN IKOM EDUCATION ZONE OF CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA
Nsan, Ogar Inongha

Department of Education Foundations & Administration
Faculty of Education, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar
ABSTRACT: This study examines psycho-social factors and examination malpractice tendencies
among pupils in Ikom education zone of Cross River State. It inquires how these factors influence
pupils’ malpractice tendencies. 520 pupils were randomly sampled for the study, 2 research
questions and 2 hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Pupils’ Psycho-Social Factors and
Examination Malpractice Tendencies Questionnaire (PPFEMT) was used to gather data for the
study. Data was analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the hypotheses were
tested at 0.05 alpha level. The findings revealed that pupils’ attitude to school and pupils’ test
anxiety do not significantly influence pupils’ examination malpractice tendencies. It was therefore,
recommended that, head teachers should organize educational programmes on examination stress
management to assist pupils cope with test anxiety etc.
KEYWORDS: Psycho-social factors, examination, malpractice tendencies, pupils
INTRODUCTION
They tend to be a high dependency on test or examination as a means to assess teaching and
learning at school in Nigeria. Examination is a means of evaluating the quantity and quality of
knowledge a learner has acquired within a specific period of time. Teaching and learning become
more effective when the pupils are subjected to a test or examination process to determine the
extent which the learners have assimilated the content of the instruction, given and the teacher can
also assess himself from the performance of the learners.
Joshua (2012) defines test as an instrument for systematic measure of a sample of behaviour. He
further defines it as a useful instrument for determining who qualifies for a particular job or
recruitment. He identifies the purposes for testing to include: selection, placement prediction,
profiency and ranking. Other purposes of test include; diagnosis evaluation, guidance and
counselling administrative decision, research purposes reporting pupils’ progress to parents pre-
assessing learner’s needs and monitoring learners progress. The aforementioned purposes underlie
the relevance of examination to the education sector.
Apart from pupils who are already in school, examination is administered as a pre-condition for
selection of pupils and students into school programmes such examinations include; The Common
Entrance Examination into secondary schools and University Matriculation Examination into
Colleges of Education and Polytechnic. Some learners would do anything legitimate or illegitimate
to succeed. It is surprising, pupils acquired skills for cheating. There is tendency for them to
cultivate this levels of education as well as other aspects of their life endeavours. If this activity is
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left unchecked, the effect on the pupils’ and the general populace could be wasted. What factors
may be responsible for this ugly behaviour that has corrupted the society?
Thus, the desperate attempt to pass a test or examination through illegitimate measures among
learners has pave way to different cases of examination malpractice tendencies in the educational
system as a whole. Issue of malpractice tendencies may be due to certain psychosocial factors.
Thus, psycho-social factors are those factors that influence learner’s examination malpractice
tendencies either positively or negatively. Some of these psycho-social factors include, test
anxiety, pupils’ attitude to school etc. Examination malpractice tendencies may define as
unpleasant method used or adopted by a learner to succeed in an examination, either copying from
text or note books, using internet, giraffing, exchanging answer booklets or throwing pieces of
papers and soughting after examination. Sulayman (2008) defines examination malpractice
tendency as a situation in which candidates from examination are given unfair advantage, before,
during or after the examination for cheap success. It is very unfortunate that these malpractice
tendencies have no restriction. Even at the primary school level, examination malpractice
tendencies have been taking place (Olufu, 2010).
Therefore, the problem of this study was to examine the extent to which psycho-social factors such
as; pupils’ attitude to school and pupils’ test anxiety influence examination malpractice tendencies
in Ikom Education zone of Cross River State, Nigeria.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This study is anchored on Bandura’s social learning theory (1965), social learning theory was
propounded by Albert Bandura in 1965. This theory states that children learn by merely observing
the behaviour of their social model even though they have never attempted the responses that they
have witnessed or received any reinforcement for performing them.
By this principle, Bandura is debunking the idea of trial and error in learning and proposing
observational learning, a process of learning by which the learner merely acquire new responses
by observing the behaviour of social models, committing into memory actions observed and
imitating or reproducing such actions when similar situations occur.
Bandura arrived at these principles of learning in his theory through experiments he conducted
using nursery school children. In the experimental conditions represented by three groups of
children who were exposed to short film. Where they saw an adult model direct and aggressive
behaviour toward and inflatable doll by hitting it. In one of the groups tagged model rewarded
condition, an adult appeared and rewarded the aggressive model for excellence performance. In
the second group tagged model punished condition, the aggressive model was scolded and spanked
for the aggressive behaviour. While in the third group, no consequence condition, the model was
neither rewarded nor punished.
Thus, Bandura concluded that what reinforcement does is to increase the likelihood that the child
will perform that which he or she has already learned by observing the models’ behaviour. Some
models according to Bandura are more worthy of attention than others. He concluded that people
who are warm, competent or powerful, are more likely to win attention of children. Teachers,
parents and older people may thus, be preferred. Thus, this study established a link between the
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use of observation and learning among pupils in Ikom education zone of Cross River State,
Nigeria.
The relevance of this theory to this study is that pupils are product of the society they live in. they
observe their peers, parents, siblings and particularly teachers that teach them and consider them
as models. Their behaviours form the basis from which pupils build theirs. In some schools,
teachers are interested in boosting the image of their school through pupils’ records of
performance. In doing so, they assist pupils by providing answers during examination, especially,
external examination.
Statement of the problem

Examination should be a true test of knowledge. It should be able to attest the level of intelligence
or performance of learners or pupils in formal and informal learning. Unless the examination is
properly administered, its result cannot be relied upon for any useful judgment. It becomes very
surprising to observe that primary education which was established on the objective of acquiring
literacy, numeracy, creativity and communication skills has also been observed to have a level of
involvement in examination malpractice tendencies. Pupils malpractice tendencies is attributed to
certain psycho-social variables, such as attitudes to school and test anxiety.
The inability to cope with the school work, laziness, location of the school, corrupt invigilators
and supervisors, fear of failure, peer group influence, parental involvement,etc had given rise to
pupils’ involvement in examination malpractice tendencies. This situation has however motivated
the pupils to present gifts to their class teachers in order to favour them during examination. It had
been observed that teachers collect money from the pupils and write answers to examination
questions on the chalk board for the pupils to copy, especially, during Common Entrance
Examination into junior secondary one (JS1). Such pupils graduate from primary school without
actualizing the goals of primary education. The consequence is that pupils who are supposed to be
well equipped for secondary education now enter such institutions with low quality skill and
knowledge, thus, metamorphosing to poor quality education products. The products of this level
cannot read or write effectively even at this period that we are faced with the problem of Education
advancement. It becomes very important that our pupils should be adequately trained, this will
help to reduce the rate of exanimation malpractice in our primary Education system.
Therefore, the problem of this study was to examine the extent to which psycho-social factors such
as; pupils’ attitude to school and pupils’ test anxiety influence examination malpractice tendencies
in Ikom Education zone of Cross River State, Nigeria.
Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this study was to examine psycho-social factors and examination malpractice
tendencies among pupils in Ikom education zone of Cross River state, Nigeria.
Specifically, the study was designed to:

i. Determine the extent to which pupils’ attitude to school influences examination
malpractice tendencies.
ii. Ascertain how pupils’ test anxiety influences examination malpractice tendencies.
Research questions
The following research questions were posed to direct the study;
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i. To what extent does pupils’ attitude to school influences their examination malpractice
tendencies?
ii. To what extent does test anxiety influence pupils’ examination malpractice tendencies?
Research hypothesis
To provide a guide for this study, two hypotheses were formulated based on the research
questions posed.
i. Pupils’ attitude to school does not significantly influence their examination malpractice
tendencies.
ii. Test anxiety does not significantly influence pupils’ examination malpractice tendencies.
Significance of the study
The study of examination malpractice tendencies may be of importance to:

Teachers, school heads, parents, pupils, government and general readers.
However, these beneficiaries may benefit from the study in the following ways:
The study may be of immense benefit to the teachers to know how psycho-social factors influence
pupils’ malpractice behaviour. This study may help the pupils to have full knowledge of the
influence of psycho-social factors resulting in malpractice tendencies. This study may help parents
to understand that psycho-social factors have high influence on pupils’ malpractice tendencies.
The study may assist the school heads to arrive at the proper ways of setting the classrooms for
effective teaching and learning, because of the influence of psycho-social factors on pupils
malpractice tendencies. This study may further help the government to know how psycho-social
factors influence pupils’ tendencies in malpractice. The general readers may have full knowledge
of examination and how to develop themselves psychologically, socially, morally, to mention but
a few. The study will encourage them to read wide, and know the implications of examination
Assumptions of the study
In this study the following assumptions were made.

i. The dependent variable, examination malpractice tendencies is normally distributed in the
population.
ii. Subjects (pupils) are randomly selected and so are representative of the population.
iii. The variables used for the study (attitude to school and test anxiety) are measureable.
iv. The subjects for the study clearly understood the test instruments administered to them and
the information supplied were genuine and without bias.
Scope of the study

The study covered the psycho-social factors and examination malpractice tendencies among pupils
in Ikom Education Zone of Cross River State. The psycho-social factors for the study were: pupils’
attitudes to school and test anxiety as they influenced examination malpractice tendencies. The
study was delimited to only primary school level. Furthermore, only final year (primary 6) pupils
in public schools between 2018/2019 academic session were studied, because they were
considered to have possessed the capacity to read and understand the demands of the instrument.
The study covered all the public schools.
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Research design
The research design adopted for this study was ex-post-facto. Ali (2006) defined ex-post facto
design as a means of undertaking studies in which independent variables among the subjects had
already existed and cannot be manipulated or controlled. The situation was also consistent with
the view of Isangedighi, Joshua, Asim and Ekuri (2004) who see ex-post facto as a research design
basically for studies of phenomena after they have occurred,since no direct manipulation would
be carried out on the independent and dependent variables respectively in the study, Ex-post facto
design becomes the most appropriate for use in this study. This design was considered most
appropriate because the researcher had no direct control of the independent variables because, they
were not manipulated as they had already occurred at the time of data collection.
Research Area
The research area was Ikom Education Zone. Ikom Education Zone is made up of six (6) Local
Government Areas namely; Abi, Boki, Etung, Ikom, Obubra and Yakurr. The zone is bounded at
the North by Ogoja, at the South by Biase, East by Ebony State and at the West by Republic of
Cameroon.The main Occupation of the people of Ikom Education zone is farming. Inhabitants of
the area produce; yam, cassava, rice, maize, cocoa, plantain, cocoyam, oil palm and others. The
people are multi lingual with Ejagham and Yakurr as major languages. Educationally, Ikom
Education zone of Cross River State has three hundred and forty five (345) public primary schools.
The zone had six (6) tertiary institutions namely; Steady Flow Collage of Education, Ikom, Nogak
Polytechnic Ikom, Elder Oyama Memorial Collage of Education Ofat, Obubra, Cross River
University of Technology, Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Ugep, School of
Nursing Itigidi, Abi, two Federal Government Colleges and several government schools. The zone
had 345 public primary schools. A break down of the number of schools showed that Abi has (45),
Boki (93), Etung (24), Ikom (62), Obubra (73) and Yakurr (48) public primary schools. Some of
these public primary schools included, PCN primary school I EdibaAbi, primary school,
WulaBoki, primary school, Ekimaya-BendegheEtung, PCN primary school Yala-NkumIkom,
Government primary school I AbabeneObubra, PCN primary school IdomiYakurr, among others.
The Population of the Study

The population for this study comprised all primary 6 pupils of public schools in Ikom Education
Zone of Cross River State. According to the enrolment records as provided by the State Universal
Basic Education Board (SUBEB, 2019), there were 31,617 pupils in primary 6. The state statistics
revealed that there were 16,642 males and 14,975 females from 345 public primary schools in
Ikom Education Zone. Their ages were between 9 and 11 years.
Sampling Procedure
In this study, the stratified and proportional random sampling techniques were adopted. The
researcher stratified the schools on the basis of Education stratum.There were 345 public primary
schools in Ikom Education Zone. Proportional and stratified random sampling procedures were
used to sample 23 schools, from 345 public primary schools in the zone. In other to determine the
sample size of 520 pupils’ in primary six, from available population of 3,041 pupils’ 17.1% was
used. Based on this, 3 were proportionally and randomly sampled from Abi Local Government
Area with 45 schools, 6 out of ninety three primary schools from Boki Local Government Area, 2
out of 24 primary schools from Etung Local Government Area, 4 out of 62 primary schools from
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Ikom Local Government Area, 5 out of 73 primary schools from Obubra Local Government Area
and 3 out of 48 primary schools from Yakurr Local Government Area. As shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Available population of schools pupils and the study sample by stratum and
gender
S/N STRATUM TOTAL RATIO NO. OF PUPILS
NO OF SCHOOLS
SCHOOLS SELECTED
M F T SUB- TOTAL
1 ABI 45 3.00 3 1. PCN P/S I, EDIBA 13 14 27 64
2. PCN P/S II, EDIBA 8 7 15
3. GOVT P/S EDIBA 7 15 22
2 BOKI 93 6.20 6 4. P/S WULA 159 129 288 1222

5. P/S KAYANG 82 97 179
6. P/S BASHUA 86 79 165
7. P/S BOKALUM 90 75 165
8. P/S BATERIKO 153 127 280
9. P/S EBRAN TA- 77 68 145
BOJE
3 ETUNG 24 1.60 2 10. P/S EKIMAYA 6 5 11 56
11. P/S TITOR 20 25 45
4 IKOM 62 4.13 4 12. PCN P/S YALA 16 15 31 77
NKUM 7 13 20
13. P/S OMINDOM 6 10 16
14. P/S OWOM 6 4 10
15. ATIMAKA
5 OBUBRA 73 4.86 5 16. GOVT. PLS I 45 51 96 1504
ABABENE
17. GOVT. PLS II 250 246 496
ABABENE
18. GOVT. PCN PLS 40 39 79
III ABAENE
19. PCN PLS 224 233 457
APIAPUM 180 196 376
20. ST EUGENE PLS
OCHON
6 YAKURR 48 3.20 3 21. PCN P/S IDOMI 26 28 54 118
22. PCN P/S MKPAIN 12 12 12
23. PCN P/S EKORI 13 18 31
7 GRAND 345 22.99 23 1535 1506 3041 3041
TOTAL
Source: (Field survey, 2019)
Sample
The sample of this study comprised 520 pupils out of 3,041 pupil in primary 6 in the 2018/2019
school session (SUBEB, 2019). From 23 public primary schools in the 6 local government area.
There were 262, represent 50.38% male and 258, representing 49.62% female as shown in table 2.
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Table2: Sample distribution by area /stratum, schools and percentages Frequency table
Variable Respondents M F Total Percentage

Schools/LGA
1.00 5 2 3 1.0
2.00 3 2 1 0.6
3.00 3 1 2 11 0.6
4.00 104 66 38 20.0
5.00 20 5 15 3.8
6.00 18 10 8 3.5
7.00 18 10 8 3.5
8.00 32 17 15 6.0
9.00 17 9 8 209 3.3
10.00 2 1 1 0.4
11.00 8 3 5 10 1.5
12.00 5 3 2 1.0
13.00 3 1 2 0.6
14.00 3 1 2 0.6
15.00 2 1 1 13 0.4
16.00 16 6 10 3.1
17.00 85 47 38 16.3
18.00 14 8 6 2.7
19.00 78 35 43 15.0
20.00 64 24 40 257 12.5
21.00 9 4 5 1.7
22.00 6 4 2 1.2
23.00 5 2 3 20 1.0
Total 520 262 258 100.0

Source: (field survey, 2019).
Instrumentation
Construction
Only one researcher made instrument (questionnaire) was used in generating data for the study. It
was titled Pupils’ Psychological Factors and Examination Malpractice TendenciesQuestionnaire
(PPFEMTQ). The questionnaire was divided into two sections (A and B).Section A comprised
respondents bio-data such as name of school, gender, school location (urban and rural) and parental
socio-economic status (very rich, rich, poor).
Section B comprises of twenty (20) Likert type items of 4-point response options, meant to
determine extent of respondent’s agreement or disagreement with each item. Five items each were
constructed to measure each dimension of the independent variable namely; attitude to school and
test anxiety. Response option here were strongly agree (SA), agree (A), disagree (D) and strongly
disagree (SD). Typical items here include: i practice mathematics with other pupils, i attend classes
frequently, i feel very uneasy during examinations, i worry about how to obtain high scores in
examination.
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Pupils’ tendency for examination malpractice was measured using a 10-item rating scale of 4-point
response options in which the pupils were required to tick against the extent to which tend to
perform certain malpractice acts like: talking to a fellow pupil during examination, asking for
assistance in a test and passing a piece of paper to another person. Response alternatives were:
very highly (VH), highly (H), little (L) and very little (VL). Thus in all, the instrument had 20
items, 10 on psychosocial factors and 10 on tendency for examination malpractice.
Validation of the instrument

Validation refers to the degree to which an instrument measures what it intends to measure, or the
extent to which a true and accurate measure of a trait is probable (Isangedighi, Joshua, Asim and
Ekuri, 2004).
Two kinds of validity were established for the instrument of the study. These were face and content
validities. Face validity refers to the way the questionnaire items appear to take care of relevant
content in the subject area of interest, while content validity refers to the extent to which the
instrument represents the content of interest, or how well the items on the instrument represent or
sample the content to be measured.
In order to determine the validity of the instrument, it was submitted to experts in Measurement
and Evaluation Unit, in the Faculty of Education, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar
to vet. The title of the study, purpose of the study and null hypotheses were forwarded alongside
with the instrument. The experts examined the hypotheses and the instrument independently and
indicated few corrections, suggested for the improvement of the instrument. These suggestions
helped to improve the instrument. By these processes, face and content validities were employed
in the study. They all finally certified the instrument adequate for the research study.
Reliability of the instrument

To establish the internal consistency of the research instrument, Cronbach reliability estimates was
analyzed alongside the split halt coefficient estimate using SPSS computer windows 20 efficient
alpha ranged between 0.599 to 0.833. These were all higher than the asserted 0.49 estimate as
provided by Nunally (1986). See table 3 below
Table 3: Cronbach reliability estimate of the study instrument (N=20)
Variables No of items X Sd ∑ 𝒔𝟐
Cronbach alpha
attitude to schooling 5 1st 15.167 1.572 1.1209 0.682
2nd 15.233 3.130 4.2714 0.705
Test anxiety 5 1st 15.033 0.598 0.711 0.599

2nd 15.500 3.011 3.147 0.816
Exam. Malp tendencies 10 1st 26.267 1.973 2.559 0.833

2nd 28.800 10.803 33.097 0.796
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Procedure for data collection
The instrument was administered to the subjects by the researcher with the assistance of the
teachers in the selected public primary schools.
Procedure for data analysis

The data gathered for this study were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).
RESULTS
Testing of hypotheses
Hypothesis one: Attitude to school does not significantly influences examination malpractice
tendencies among pupils. See table 4.
Table 4: One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of the influence of attitude to schooling

on pupils’ examination malpractice tendencies N = 520
N ̅
𝑿 SD St.Error
Low attitude 83 28.7349 9.82913 1.07889
Average 367 28.9891 9.88872 0.51619
High Attitude 70 20.4143 8.97257 1.07243
Total 520 28.8712 9.74515 0.42735
Sources of SS Df MS F-cal Sig.
variability
Between groups 21.257 2 10.628
0.112 0.894
Within groups 49267.111 517 95.294
Total 49288.367 519
Result not significance at alpha level.05; df = 2 and 517, critical F = 3.002
From Table 4, the calculated F-value of 0.112 was found to be lower than the critical F-value of
3.002 needed for significance at 0.05 alpha level with 2 and 517 degrees of freedom. With this
result the null hypothesis was upheld. This means that pupils’ attitude to schooling does not
significantly influence their examination malpractice tendencies. The profile plot of sub-group
means was presented in Figure 1.
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Means Plots
29.00
Mean of Exam Malpractice
28.90
28.80
28.70
28.60
Low Average High
Attitude Categorized Attitude
Attitude Attitude
Figure 1: Profile plot of examination malpractice tendencies by categorized attitude to school
The means plots above of the study showed that the mean of low attitude to schooling was (28.70),
average (29.00) and high (28.40). This means that pupils attitude to schooling does not
significantly influence their examination malpractice tendencies.
Hypothesis 2: Test anxiety does not significantly influences examination malpractice tendencies
among pupils’. The result of this analysis was presented in table 5.
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Table 5: One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for the influence of test anxiety on
pupils’ examiantion malpractice tendencies N = 520
N ̅
𝑿 SD St. Error
Low Test Anxiety 90 27.7111 10.56201 1.11333
Average Test Anxiety 367 28.9292 9.38551 0.48992
High Test Anxiety 63 30.1905 10.54003 1.32792
Total 520 28.8712 9.74515 0.42735
Sources of SS Df MS F-cal Sign.
variability
Between groups 232.006 2 11.6.003
1.223 0.295
Within groups 49056.361 517 94.887
Total 49288.367 519

Result not significant at alpha level 0.05; df = 2 and 517, critical F = 3.002
From Table 5, the calculated F-value of 1.223 was found to be lower than the critical F-value of
3.002 needed for significance at 0.05 alpha level with 2 and 517 degrees of freedom. With this
results, the null hypothesis was upheld. This means that test anxiety does not significantly
influence pupils’ examination malpractice tendencies in schools. The profile plot of sub-group
means was presented in Figure 2.
Means Plots
30.50
Malpractice Tendency
30.00
Mean of Exam
29.50
29.00
Low Anxiety Average Anxiety High Anxiety

Categorized Test Anxiety
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Figure 2: Profile plot of examination malpractice tendencies by categorized test anxiety
The means plots of the study revealed that low anxiety was (27.50), average anxiety (29.00) and
high (30.50). This means that test anxiety does not significantly influence pupils’ examination
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
From the data analyzed the following findings emerged.
i. Attitude to school does not significantly influences examination malpractice tendencies

among pupils.
ii. Test anxiety does not significantly influences examination malpractice tendencies among
pupils’.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The statistical analysis of hypothesis one of this study have revealed that pupils’ attitude to school
(categorized into low – 83, average – 367 and high 70), does not significantly influence their
examination malpractice tendencies. The results of ANOVA confirmed this assertion through it F-
value of 0.112 which was far lower the critical F-value of 3.002. This findings agrees with Angrey
(2004) and Bature (2005). But contradicted with the finding of Udom (2000) study on the factors
that affect pupils tendencies to cheat in examination, revealed that pupils’ actual level of cheating
in examination is significantly dependent on the level of their attitude toward school.
This findings stated clearly that the average pupils’ involve more in malpractice tendencies,
following by pupils with low attitude to school and finally, the high attitude to school. Buttressing
this view malpractice tendencies among pupils is depended on the attitude of the pupils toward
school. In our educational system today, pupils’ no longer devote time to read because the only
way to succeed in the examination is to cheat. Furthermore, Agbor (2003) study on the force
behind examination malpractice found out that, lack of adequate preparation for examination non-
seriousness on pupils part and stress on certificate make pupils to bribe their way through
examination. Poor attitude to school, results in malpractice tendencies among pupils. This finding
contradict with that of Clarks (2007) study, which dealt on the influence of psychological outcomes
on the level of effort put into school work. Further contradiction could be seen on Odinkwo and
Adeyemi (2009) study, which reported a positive attitude to school work and pupils attitude to
learning in English language. The result of this study led to the inference that the more positive
attitude the pupils display to school work, the belter the learning outcome, while negative attitude
will lead to poor learning outcome.
The statistical analysis of hypothesis two has revealed the facts that test anxiety does not
significantly influence pupils examination malpractice tendencies in school. The results of
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) confirmed this view through it F-value of 1.223 which was lower
than critical F- value of 3.002. The findings agrees with Asia (2001), on a related research study.
in a study on the influence of test anxiety on examination malpractice of senior secondary school
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students in Calabar south education authority. However, Udom (2000) study on test anxiety and
cheating in examination revealed that the results was not significant at (p>.05). Thus, the null
hypothesis was accepted and concluded that, pupils with different actual level of cheating do not
differ significantly on test anxiety.
This study categorized test anxiety into low – 90, average – 367 and high – 63. The study
speculated that pupils with average anxiety engage more in malpractice tendencies. This was
followed by low anxiety pupils and high anxiety. Anxiety tends to create tension, fear and
depression. In examination anxiety may hinder the ability to recall what was read and may create
fear of failure.
The finding of this study contradicted the finding of Isangedighi (2001) study in examining the
influence of test anxiety and pupils academic achievement, used 300 pupils as a sample drawn,
using simple random sampling technique. Ex-post-facto design was adopted for the study. A
questionnaire was used to generate data for the study. The Pearson product moment correlation
analysis technique was used to analyze the data at 0.05 level of significance. From the finding, it
was revealed that pupils’ academic achievement is significantly related to the level of anxiety. It
also contradicts the finding of Bassey and Iruoje (2016) study on test anxiety, attitude to schooling,
parental influence and peer pressure as predictors of students cheating tendencies in Edo state
Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Stratified random sampling
technique was used. One thousand two hundred (1200) senior secondary school students were
selected for the study. A 60 – item four point likert type questionnaire developed by the researchers
was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed, using Multiple Regression
Analysis. The result, revealed that test anxiety, attitude to schooling, parental influence and peer
pressure jointly significantly predict students cheating tendencies in examination.
This study depicts that examination malpractice does not only takes place in secondary and tertiary
institutions, but also takes place at the foundational level of our educational system (primary
school). However, the study stated clearly that during external examination, like the Common
Entrance Examination, teachers do copy answers on the board for children to copy. Because, most
parents bribe teachers with money, while some with gifts, so that their children will be successful
at the end of the examination.
The study of examination malpractice tendencies may be of importance to pupils, the general
readers, teachers, school heads, parents and government. However, these beneficiaries may benefit
from the study in the following ways. The study may help the pupils to know the implication of
examination malpractice tendencies. The study may help the general reader to have full knowledge
of examination malpractice tendencies, thereby developing themselves, psychologically, socially,
morally and otherwise.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were made:
Attitude to school and test anxiety have no significant influence on pupils’ examination
malpractice tendencies in Ikom education zone of Cross River State, Nigeria.
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Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study these recommendations were made:

i. Head teachers should explore other means in assessing the pupil’s attitude to school by
giving item open test, assignment to reduce malpractice tendencies among the pupils.
ii. Head teachers should organize education programmes on examination stress management,
to assist pupils in coping with anxiety.
iii. Head teachers should build self-confidence on examination prior to the period of
REFERENCES
Ali, N. A. (2006). Conducting research in education and social science Nsukka, Tian Press.
Angrey, N. (2004). Learning readiness. Lagos: MaCmillian.
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International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Vol.7, No.2, pp.46-59, April 2019

Nsan, Ogar Inongha

KEYWORDS: Psycho-social factors, examination, malpractice tendencies, pupils

Statement of the problem

Purpose of the study

Specifically, the study was designed to:

Significance of the study

The study of examination malpractice tendencies may be of importance to:

Assumptions of the study

In this study the following assumptions were made.

Scope of the study

The Population of the Study

2 BOKI 93 6.20 6 4. P/S WULA 159 129 288 1222

Source: (Field survey, 2019)

Variable Respondents M F Total Percentage

Total 520 262 258 100.0

Validation of the instrument

Reliability of the instrument

Table 3: Cronbach reliability estimate of the study instrument (N=20)

Test anxiety 5 1st 15.033 0.598 0.711 0.599

Exam. Malp tendencies 10 1st 26.267 1.973 2.559 0.833

Procedure for data analysis

Table 4: One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of the influence of attitude to schooling

Result not significance at alpha level.05; df = 2 and 517, critical F = 3.002

Figure 1: Profile plot of examination malpractice tendencies by categorized attitude to school

Total 49288.367 519

Low Anxiety Average Anxiety High Anxiety

From the data analyzed the following findings emerged.

i. Attitude to school does not significantly influences examination malpractice tendencies

Based on the findings of this study these recommendations were made:

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